Books are listed alphabetically by author. Only books
received are noted. Where available, links to SF Site reviews and book
excerpts are provided.

New Arrivals:
1 - 28 February 2001Part II

Jon Sullivan

St. Patrick's GargoyleKatherine KurtzAce (hardcover, 233 pages, $21.95 US/$30.99 Can)
Publication date: February 2001
A new fantasy novel from Katherine Kurtz, set in modern-day Dublin, about gargoyles who weren't always gargoyles... This story "begins with a series of thefts and vandalisms on Church property. Padraig, the gargoyle who guards St. Patrick's Cathedral, enlists the reluctant aid of an ordinary man named Francis Templeton to track down the culprits. But what seems to be simple human hooliganism may, in fact, be much more. There is something ancient and evil hidden under one of the oldest of Dublin's buildings. It is bound by spells -- but they are weakening..."

Jim Burns

ParadoxJohn MeaneyBantam (mass market reprint, 545 pages, £6.99 UK)
Publication date: 8 March 2001
From the author of To Hold Infinity. "Centuries of self-imposed isolation have transformed Nulapeiron into a world unlike any other -- a world of vast subterranean cities maintained by extraordinary organic technologies. For the majority of its people, however, such wonders have little meaning. Denied their democratic rights and restricted to the impoverished lower levels, they are subjected to the brutal law of the Logic Lords and the Oracles, supra-human beings whose ability to truecast the future maintains the status quo." Tom Corcorigan is given a tiny info-crystal by a strange woman. The next day she is assassinated in public by the military. "What Tom has still to discover is that his crystal holds the key to understanding mu-space, and so to freedom itself. He doesn't know it yet, but he has been given a destiny to fulfil -- nothing less than the rewriting of his future, and that of his world..."

Eric Busch

Red MoonDavid S. MichaelsFireWord Publishing (trade, 620 pages)
Publication date: November 2000
First novel from a new author. "This much is fact: on July 13, 1969, three days before Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, a spaceship blasted off from the Soviet Union. Soviet records claim Luna 15 was a failed robotic probe. But this was a deception planted to cover up the USSR's last attempt to beat America in the moon race. On board is Grigor Bellinsky, a cosmonaut so disillusioned with his nation's regime that he must be blackmailed into flying the one-way mission... Red Moon opens in July 2019 with the lunar landing of a multinational mission on the Sea of Crises. American astronaut Janet Luckman leads a team in search of a Mother Lode of lunar ice laced with Helium 3 -- a desperately needed energy source. The future of humanity rides on Luckman's success. She unexpectedly finds the lunar lander Firebird and recovers the flight log, but the cosmonaut has disappeared. Luckman senses that his fate is linked to the elusive Mother Lode and she races the clock to simultaneously solves these two mysteries. her ship must blast off in 51 hours or miss its return window to Earth. But a traitor in her crew will stop at nothing -- including murdering her -- to sabotage the mission and bury the secret of the Firebird forever."

The Octagonal RavenL.E. Modesitt, Jr.Tor (hardcover, 432 pages, $27.95 US/$39.95 Can)
Publication date: February 2001
A new SF thriller from one of the genres more prolific authors. "Someone is trying to kill Daryn Alwyn. Born to privilege, with pre-selected genetic advantages and the best nanotech augmentation his father's fabulous money can buy, Daryn spurned the lucrative family Media Network to seek his own path. After serving with distinction as a space pilot in the military, he enjoys success as a media consultant. When he finds himself the target of sophisticated murder attempts, his world is turned upside down."

California Sorceryedited by William F. Nolan and William SchaferAce (mass market reprint, 275 pages, $5.99 US/$8.99 Can)
Publication date: February 2001
Originally in limited edition hardcover from Cemetery Dance Publications (June 1999), this anthology highlights 9 new and 3 reprinted classic works from 12 authors known as "The Group" who hailed from what was known as "the California school," writing in all genres -- SF, fantasy, crime, horror, etc. This book "offers a magical blend of untethered imagination and dazzling skill -- a book of wondrous surprise and rare pleasure provided by some of the world's most brilliant storytellers." The 12 contributors are: Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Ray Russell, Charles Beaumont, George Clayton Johnson, Robert Bloch, John Tomerlin, Chad Oliver, Charles E. Fritch, William F. Nolan (Logan's Run), and Jerry Sohl.

Dave Dorman

The Complete ParatimeH. Beam PiperAce (trade, 424 pages, $15 US/$21 Can)
Publication date: March 2001
The Paratime stories were first published in Astounding magazine throughout the 1940s and 50s, and even into the 60s. Here they are, collected in one volume for your convenience and enjoyment. "Infinite worlds allowed for infinite evil, unless the doorway to those worlds was most carefully guarded. The Paratime police are an elite body of men and women charged with defending a million unsuspecting Earths from their more developed -- and more ruthless -- neighbours in parallel continua."

The One Kingdom: Book One of The Swans' WarSean RussellEos, HarperCollins (hardcover, 480 pages, $25 US/$37.95 Can)
Publication date: February 2001
First volume in a new fantasy series from the author of River into Darkness and Moontide and Magic Rise. "The King of Ayr has died before naming an heir, leaving behind the Renné and Wills families as possible successors. Generations of hatred between the two clans are tearing apart the kingdom, weakening it further as its population declines. Yet these families are not the only competitors for the throne. There are others, noble and sorcerer alike, who prefer the realm divided, using the years of strife to mask their own growing greed for power. But when the turmoil wakes the dark river spirits -- the hosts of centuries of war and treachery -- all must somehow band together before there is nothing left of their kingdom to battle for."

Point of DreamsMelissa Scott and Lisa A. BarnettTor (hardcover, 432 pages, $25.95 US/$36.95 Can)
Publication date: February 2001
Latest novel from the co-authors of The Armour of Light and Point of Hopes, this is the sequel to the latter. "The city of Astreiant, in a late Renaissance world where magic works, has gone crazy with enthusiasm for a new play, 'The Drowned Island.' Pointsman Nicholas Rath is not amused, however, at a real dead body on stage, and must investigate. This is much complicated by the time of year: the ghosts of the dead appear and linger at this time, and though they cannot speak, their presence and appearance influence everyone."

Sean Beavers

The Law of WarWilliam ShatnerAce Science Fiction (mass market reprint, 275 pages, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: February 2001
First published in hardcover in 1998 from Ace/Putnam, this novel returns to the Mars of Shatner's acclaimed novel, Man O'War. "With Benton Hawkes as prime minister, the planet named for the god of war seems on its way to a peaceful future. But a corrupt Earth politician with a vendetta against Hawkes moves to satisfy his lust for revenge -- and turn the red planet a darker hue with the blood of an unjust war..."

Tik-TokJohn SladekVictor Gollancz SF Collectors' Edition (trade, 176 pages, £9.99 UK)
Publication date: 15 February 2001
This satiric and funny novel was first published in 1983. Tik-Tok is a robot, but one whose asimov circuits have malfunctioned. You know, the circuits that should ensure Asimov's First Law of Robotics -- the one about robots not being allowed to injure a human. "While maintaining the outward appearance of a mild and willing robot, albeit one with artistic tendencies and sympathy for the robot rights movement, Tik-Tok's real agenda is murderously different. He seems intent on injuring -- preferably fatally -- as many people as possible. Almost inevitably, a successful career in crime and general mayhem leads to a move into politics and Tik-Tok becomes the first robot candidate for Vice President of the United States."

The Abulon DanceCaro SolesBaskerville Books (trade, 278 pages, $19.95 Can)
Publication date: March 2001
From the editor of erotic dark fantasy anthologies Bizarre Dreams and Meltdown! and the author (under another name) of 6 novels and numerous short stories, several of which may be found in MENagerie, her latest collection. "The pleasure-loving hermaphrodites of the Merculian National Dance Company are on tour to mysterious Abulon. The natives seem friendly enough, but when the star's young lover is kidnapped, the Merculians find themselves plunged into an alien civil war they are ill-equipped to survive." Soles is currently working on the next Merculian novel, The Danger Dance.

Victor Stablin

GalvestonSean StewartAce Fantasy (trade reprint, 455 pages, $14.95 US/$20.99 Can)
Publication date: February 2001
Thanks to the administrative abilities of Jane Gardner and the supernatural talents of Odessa Gibbons, the inhabitants of Galveston, Texas, have managed to co-exist with the magic that swept over them 20 years earlier -- and to which the rest of civilization succumbed. Occult forces have been confined in an eternal Mardi Gras carnival celebration segregated from the "real" city, which has contrived to maintain a sense of "normalcy" using jury-rigged technology and an oligarchic government. But now Jane Gardner is slowly dying...
Review by David Soyka.

Sir Edward Burne-Jones

BeautySheri S. TepperMillennium, Victor Gollancz (trade, 477 pages, £6.99 UK)
Publication date: 8 February 2001
First published in 1991, this novel won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. "On her 16th birthday, the princess Beauty sidesteps the sleeping curse placed upon her by her wicked aunt, the fairy Carabosse -- only to be kidnapped by visitors form another time and place, far from the picturesque castle in 14th century England. She is taken to the world of the future, a savage society where, even amongst the teeming billions, she is utterly alone. And as she travels magically to places both imaginary and real, Beauty eventually comes to understand her special place in humanity's destiny."

Bob Warner

Evergence: A Dark ImbalanceSean Williams & Shane DixAce Science Fiction (mass market original, 390 pages, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: February 2001
Sequel to The Prodigal Sun and The Dying Light, this is the third and final volume of Evergence. "Renegade intelligence agent Morgan Roche has been charged by the High Humans to protect mankind from the threat of the clone warriors. Pursuing one such warrior into the Sol System, she strives to learn the true identity of the enemy, and how to defeat them. It is here, in the light of the star called Sol, that Morgan will learn the truth -- about the artificial intelligence known as The Box, about the man who calls himself Adoni Cane, about the High Humans... and about her destiny."
Review by Lisa DuMond of Evergence: The Prodigal Sun.

Steve Youll

The Quiet InvasionSarah ZettelAspect Science Fiction (mass market reprint, 485 pages, $6.99 US/$9.99 Can)
Publication date: March 2001
Originally in hardcover from Warner Books, March 2000, from the author of Reclamation, Fool's War and Playing God. "Venus is an uninhabitable sphere of lethal heat, deadly pressures, and poison winds, yet humans explore it hoping to find miracles. to the alien beings called the People, who must escape their own distant, dying homeworld, Venus is a miracle... for it is the only other planet in the galaxy that can sustain the avian race. But when the refugees are discovered on Earth's sister world, they are perceived as an invading alien horde intent on overrunning the solar system. Now, suddenly, the world named for the goddess of love is about to become ground zero for an interstellar war..."
Read an excerpt.